Does the Theory of the Tripartite Soul Give Us Good Reason to be Just?
Introduction
The well-known philosopher of Ancient Greece, Plato, presented the theory of the tripartite soul. However, the ideas, which consider the components of the soul to depend on the social system or have an impact on the human behavior, can as well belong to another genius of the same time, Socrates. Plato and Socrates, as two of the most prominent minds of the ancient times, questioned the features of the human personality under the terms of the natural instincts and the characteristics, which all people get with birth.
In fact, all the thoughts of these two masters stand on the significant ground of the intangible proof. Leading the most popular trends of their contemporary philosophy, Plato and Socrates introduced the extremely important judgment of the concept of being just. However, the idea of the tripartite soul is a debatable issue, which puts the modern philosophers into dispute. Therefore, it is vital to find out whether the impact of the tripartite soul idea has anything in common with the necessity of being just.
The Theory of the Tripartite Soul
The famous study, The Republic, is one of the most crucial works of Plato’s creation. Alongside highlighting the key factors of his own point of view and presenting the ideas of others, the author puts extreme value into his work. Nowadays, all the parts of this study are in the center of the philosophical, cultural, and social life. The Republic itself is a compilation of the ideas of Plato and Socrates on what should be a perfect community. Putting the concept of a ‘just’ something, the philosophers try to approve its necessity by analyzing almost all the aspects of the human existence. Therefore, the description of the people’s mind, or properly said people’s psyche, appears to be the logical part of the conversation. The idea of the Tripartite Soul is the chief topic of Book IV, which introduces the theory, as well as discovers its sources and influences.
The basic idea of the theory is that the human psyche naturally consists of three components. These are the logical part, the spirited part, and the appetitive part. Connecting these three sectors to the social and political life of their community, the philosophers pointed out that all the components work independently. Such a structure of the psyche allows it to work harmonically. Alongside the proportional work of the people’s psyche, the adequate cooperation of the three sectors in a state can make it just. In these terms, the concept of justice as the requirement to the state and its members, appear to be the reflection of the proper work of everyone.
All of the components of the psyche can work without interfering with each other’s spheres and damage the general system due to their key responsibilities. The appetitive part, for example, aims to bring pleasure and satisfy the wishes and desires. The logical part, in turn, functions to make people eager to learn. The goal of the third part, which is the spirited part, is to distract other components from confrontations and protect the whole system from the dangerous influence of the outside.
In the context of building the just state, it is necessary to oversee the harmony of these components as the embodiment of the justice. Hence, it appears to be obvious that the opposite of this ideal society is the concept of injustice. In the context of the philosophy of Plato and Socrates, the injustice appears when the state ignores the existence of the logical part, damaging at the same time the spirited sector. Therefore, the cooperation of the three components and the attempt to make them have the equal value in the community is the best way to implement justice.
The work The Republic introduces a number of significant ideas and findings, while Book IV is the exact part, which describes the tripartite soul concept. Taking into account that the study is a philosophical one, by establishing the connections between reasons and results, Plato involves his interlocutors into a conversation. One of the particular methods of his philosophy, which Plato uses in this very chapter, is him addressing the integral principle of non-contradiction. Thus, examining the problem of the human soul, the philosophers point out that the patterns of thinking and the tendencies in behavior prove that one person can create paradoxes without external interference.
For example, the authors observe the situation when a person is going to commit a crime. At some point of the crime preparation, the human mind offers different types of attitude. On the one hand, planning a crime, a lawbreaker thinks of the pleasure he is going to have. Therefore, during such an activity, the appetitive part of the psyche is working, while others are not dominant. Nevertheless, the idea of the punishment and, firstly, the moral principles can as well cross this criminal’s mind. Finally, the psyche of the future burglar produces two different ways of perceiving the situation, which creates a kind of bias.
Reflecting the specifics of the thinking in one’s behavior, people illustrate the internal contradiction. Such a conflict bases on the disharmony in the coexistence of the psyche components. In fact, such a doubt can happen in almost any condition, which means that people have two ways of handling the situation. This, in turn, means that the human mind has at least two parts, which are responsible for the decision-making process.
Stating all that in Book IV of the Republic, Plato refers to the statement of Socrates, “It is obvious that the same thing will never do or suffer opposites in the same respect in relation to the same thing and at the same time”. This phrase makes it evident that the human soul has more than one component and can distort person’s thoughts, as well as one’s behavior.
The Logical Part
The logical part of the human soul is logistikon. In the perception of Socrates and Plato, logistikon is responsible for the process of thinking and reasoning. Besides, one of the most considerable features of the logical part of the soul is its aims. The person, in whose soul the logical approach is dominating, appreciates the truth and seeks to extend one’s knowledge. Plato addresses these people as the ones with the Athenian temperament. In fact, such a denomination is the result of the high level of the Athenian development amid other Greek communities of the time.
In the context of the social life, logistikon inspires people to learn the facts, to judge the conditions and reveal the truth. The logical part inspires people to be just and the domination of such people in the state makes the community just too. However, logistikon is the smallest part of the human soul and sometimes it can face the oppression of the other parts, which is the embodiment of injustice. Therefore, logistikon should be the leader of the soul because it provides the mind with justice, as well as the rulers provide the state with the equitable decisions.
The Spirited Part
Plato calls the spirited part thymoeides. This component of the soul is responsible for the human feelings, especially the most powerful ones. For example, the influence of thymoeides forces people to lose temper and become furious. Taking into account that this part of the soul is extremely significant with its power of impact, a just person uses it to overcome the appetitive part. Discussing the whole structure of the tripartite soul in general, the spirited part functions under the control of the logistikon and creates the equal resistance to the appetitive part. In such a cooperation, the spirited part creates the concept of indignation and encourages a person to be eager to be good.
As Plato connects logistikon to the Athenian state, he implies that the spirited part dominates in the inhabitants of the northern regions. Observing Scythians and Thracians as the considerable enemies and the powerful warriors, the perception of the Ancient Greeks proved that the spirited soul is a furious and warlike barbarian. Besides, the spirited part makes a person unjust when following the attempts of the appetitive part and oppressing the logical one.
The Appetitive Part
In his Republic, Plato calls the appetitive part the epithymetikon. This component of the human soul is responsible for the necessities of the physical body. Such activities as physical love, erotic connection, hunger, and thirst appear to grow stronger under the influence of the appetitive part. In fact, epithymetikon highlights these requirements of the physical body in exaggerated form. Therefore, the desires, drawn by epithymetikon, force people to think of the things they want without evaluating these things as necessary ones.
In the context of the tripartite soul structure, the appetitive component of the human soul is the opposite of the logistikon. Such feelings as hunger for food or for entertainment do not satisfy the eagerness to learn more and find out the truth. The truth can be found through the knowledge while satisfying the physical needs has nothing to do with it. As a result, the actions, which the appetitive part claims to be essential, discourage people from following the logistikon. Finally, when the epithymetikon is strong enough, it overcomes the logistikon and starts ruling the spirited part, as well as the whole soul. Therefore, Plato claims the processes, generated by the appetitive part, to be a-logical. In general, such a complex of the human soul is the representation of the unjust state of mind.
In the social context, people, whose epithymetikon is the dominating component of the soul, demonstrate the interest in different kinds of entertainment. For example, their preferences of the physical pleasure find the embodiment in people’s love for sexual activities. When a person is attached to the process of sex, not for the sake of reproduction, it is a sign of the human appetitive part dominating over the other concepts. Besides, in the terms of social life, these people show the love of money-making. Because of such a feature, the author of the Republic calls Phoenicians and Egyptians the true followers of the epithymetikon. The topic of the appetitive part of the soul and its impact on the general way of the human behavior contradicts the concept of justice.
Does the Theory of the Tripartite Soul Give Us Good Reason to be Just?
In the book the Republic, Plato puts the crucial ideas into the statements of Socrates. In fact, the conversations of the Book IV are definitely the most relevant in the context of the tripartite soul. In this chapter, the author gives a clear understanding of what is the tripartite soul and how the three parts of the human soul should cooperate to make a person just. Still, the understanding of the concept of justice is quite debatable in this very context. Therefore, there appears a question, whether the justification of the tripartite soul is reasonable enough to convince people to be just.
The description of the tripartite soul and the theory of people and states’ justice is comprehensive under the influence of the thoughtful judgment and the tangible manner of logical analysis. Besides, one of the features of Plato’s work is that the way of philosophic approach is put into the understandable language. For example, in order to illustrate the connections between the logistikon and the epithymetikon, in one of his statements, Socrates implements the metaphor of better and worse.
Additionally, discussing the concepts of good and bad, Socrates implements the idea of the mastership. If the better part, which is also the smallest, dominates over the worst, a person is a master of one’s own self. On the other hand, if a person highlights the necessity of the worst part of his life, one is considered to be the slave of self. As a result, the ability to master and control one’s feelings and desires with the use of the logistikon makes a person just.
The domination of the small circle of the best born and best educated in the state also promises this state to be just. The realization of both good and bad under the terms of the same state creates the possibility of the two ways of ruling it. One of the last statements of the Book IV is “when the trader, the auxiliary, and the guardian each do their own business, that is justice, and will make the city just”. Therefore, the harmony of all the components of the community, as well as the reasonable cooperation of the logistikon, thymoeides, and epithymetikon introduce the concept of justice.
However, one particular feature of this work makes the whole question a debatable issue. Plato introduces the reasons to control the appetitive part and develop the logical one. The aim is to become just. Nevertheless, there is no reason to be just. There is a number of philosophical approaches that describe different views on justice and utility in philosophy. Plato and Socrates’ approach, in fact, does not describe their standpoint about the necessity of being just.
Conclusion
Discussing all the components of the tripartite soul together, all of them appear to be vitally important in the context of the internal harmony. However, their cooperation builds the harmony not on their equal contribution. In order to make a person just, its soul ought to put the logical component on top of the system. Thus, the structure of the tripartite soul in the connection to the human behavior based on the proportional influence. For instance, logistikon is the smallest part, while it ought to be the ruler. The appetitive part, in turn, is the biggest but the one to obey.
As a result, all the components of the tripartite soul ought to exist without oppression but in reasonable cooperation. Such a way of distributing the responsibilities between the parts of the tripartite soul, in order to make a person just also represent the ways to implement justice in the state. The ruling top of the community, for example, embodies logistikon. It is the smallest part of the community but it ought to make the decisions on the behalf of the whole state. Their decisions and actions need to be reasonable and thoughtful and exist in the correspondence with the truth and knowledge.
Finally, Plato and Socrates show the exact way to become just through the idea of the tripartite soul. However, they do not give much reasoning to make the concept of justice extremely necessary. As a result, the conversations between Socrates and his opponents, described in Book IV of Plato’s Republic, describe ‘How’ to become just without highlighting the ‘Why’.
Bibliography
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